The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | march 22, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 143
Leslie Jones brings the laughs
Police arrest 11 protesters at Allegheny County Jail James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor
both comedians along with embarrassing anecdotes and occasional audience interaction as part of Pitt’s Women’s Empowerment Week — a series of events designed to spark conversations on campus about the importance of working toward the empowerment of all women. The night got political quickly as Laster ragged on President Donald Trump
After three days of protests in solidarity with inmates striking at the Allegheny County Jail, only a dozen supporters remained outside its fortified walls Tuesday night. The tired group trudged into the jail’s bright lobby at roughly 9:30 p.m., and then filed into a small nondescript gray court room. There, they watched on a small T.V. screen as a few of their friends were brought in front of a judge to hear the charges they had accrued the previous night — some had court dates set for the oncoming morning. The small audience, sitting in silent solidarity, were the remnants of a protest supporting inmate’s demands for adjusted living conditions. TeOnna Ross, the lead organizer with the ACJ Health Justice Project — an organization dedicated to making sure inmates receive comprehensive health care — said that about 80 prisoners engaged in a sit-in Friday through Saturday night. The inmates refused to eat meals or participate in work duties to raise awareness about unjust living conditions, particularly regarding medical care and grievance procedures,
See Leslie Jones on page 4
See Jail Arrests on page 2
SNL actress and comedian Leslie Jones performed a stand-up comedy routine during a PPC event held in the WPU on Tuesday night. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Zoe Pawliczek Staff Writer
Leaning back on her stool with her legs spread, pretending to take a nude photo of herself, comedian Leslie Jones couldn’t stop cracking herself up. “Make sure that you have the right lighting [and] the right angle — make sure you don’t do it from above,” Jones told the crowd of more than 350 students
at the William Pitt Union Tuesday night. “And the number one thing is: don’t put your face in that s***.” Jones and her opening act Jon Laster — a New York City-based comedian touring colleges with Jones — shared laughs and a few awkward moments with the audience during the Pitt Program Council’s “Evening of Comedy.” The 90-minute event featured stand-up from
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Healthy Habits Pitt starts new institute for health research, online said it stood in solidarity with the inmates and said in a tweet that “none of the arrestees participated in militant action.” Some of the people gathered at the courthouse Tuesday night were from the Coalition, but they refused to speak to The Pitt News. The ACJ Health Justice Project first mentioned the inmates’ sit-in through a Facebook post on the organization’s page Saturday. Ross said the organization received demands in a handwritten letter from an inmate speaking on behalf of other inmates. According to the post, the inmates held the sit-in to address the following five issues:
Jail Arrests, pg. 1
Ross said. The jail, however, is refuting that the sitin ever happened. “Contrary to reports made by the group that has been organizing the protests over the last few days, there are no sit-ins or protests going on inside the jail, nor have there been,” ACJ Warden Orlando Harper said yesterday in a release provided by Amie Downs, communications director for Allegheny County. Despite the city’s refutations, a group of 20 to 25 protesters held a “noise demonstration” Monday night, which involved banging drums and clanging metal pipes together in an attempt to bring inmates to the windows. Pittsburgh Police said that the protesters turned to using rocks and fireworks, which led to 11 arrests, according to a Department of Public Safety press release. The Monday night demonstrators started to throw rocks above the jail’s fence, breaking windows on the lower level and damaging a security camera, police said. Once police arrived on scene, they detained 11 individuals, and found knives, drugs and firearms — including a loaded 9mm pistol,
Protestors sat outside the courthouse Tuesday in solidarity with those arrested Monday. Anna Bongardino STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER according to the DPS press release. Police arrested the individuals for charges including aggravated assault, possessing prohibited offensive weapons, resisting arrest and more. While the ACJ Health Justice Project did organize a five to 10 person rally in front of the jail on Saturday, it followed up in another Facebook post March 21 saying it did
not organize the Monday night protest. The post did, however, declare that the group stands in solidarity with the demonstrators both inside and outside the prison. “We do sympathize with those who feel frustrated by the abuses at the jail because they’re horrendous,” Ross said in an interview with The Pitt News. Pitt’s Student Solidarity Coalition also
Permit the Justice Project to have immediate access to the ACJ as volunteer interns, with designated areas within the jail to conduct inmate interviews and generate reports Expand unit management staff to include more case workers or assistants to better manage the affairs of inmates Change the method in which medical services are provided to inmates and ensure adequate medications are dispensed Provide inmates a legitimate grievance See Jail Arrests on page 3
Peduto declares day of solidarity with immigrant residents Ashwini Sivaganesh News Editor
Joining in national trends, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto declared Tuesday the Cities’ Immigration Day of Action — a declaration of solidarity with immigrant families around the city and nation. The U.S. Conference of Mayors organized the mostly-symbolic event, which included several cities across the country such as Los Angeles, Seattle and Anaheim, California. Peduto said Monday that in light of the current presidential administration’s increased efforts to halt immigration from several countries in the Middle East, this was an important stance for the city.
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“If the latest enforcement policies [by the federal government] were indeed about preserving public safety, we would be using our precious resources to pursue criminals who are a threat to our community, not pursuing parents with young children, sowing distrust and discord,” Peduto said in a press release. Other mayors echoed this sentiment, calling on the federal government to respond to the Day of Action by ceasing anti-immigration efforts. “[Today] we are standing alongside our police chiefs, our faith leaders, our legal advocates, our business leaders and community advocates to reaffirm our commitment to our immigrant residents,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a
conference call among select mayors and the press. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in late January suspending immigration to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries — Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Yemen — for 90 days, all refugees for 120 days and Syrian refugees indefinitely. According to the Pitt Factbook, 61 out of 3,012 international students at Pitt are from one of the five banned countries — none are from Yemen or Somalia. Pittsburgh is not a sanctuary city, and state-level legislation in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate might threaten any consideration by Peduto to become one. Two bills were put
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forth in February to penalize municipalities and universities in Pennsylvania that declared sanctuary status. Pennsylvania Sen. Guy Reschenthaler, a Republican from Jefferson Hills, proposed the city bill — referred to as the Municipal Sanctuary and Federal Enforcement Act — and Rep. Jerry Knowles, a Republican representing three counties in the state, sponsored the anti-sanctuary campus bill called HB14. Peduto did not talk about Pittsburgh’s sanctuary city status on Monday, but he reiterated the actions the city has already taken to ensure that Pittsburgh immigrants feel safe in their respective See Immigration on page 3
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Jail Arrests, pg. 2 procedure Require the DOC and Prison Board to ensure that all administrative rules and DOC policies are accessible to inmates Downs said the jail has become aware of these concerns and demands but never received a list from inmates. “We received [the demands] when the media forwarded them to us,” she said. While Downs said some of the demands were “without any specificity” and in some cases “fabricated,” making them difficult to address, she said some practices the inmates requested were already in place, such as a system to conduct interviews with inmates. Through the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a group that advocates for prisoners and helps inmates reenter society after their sentences, Downs said volunteers can go into the jail and talk to inmates. In reference to concerns about grievance procedures, she said that if inmates have a complaint, there is a system in place for them to write it down, give it their pod supervisor and hear back within seven to 10 days.
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Chief among ACJ Health Justice Project’s worries, however, was medical care. Ross said the organization is concerned that jail staff are not giving correct doses of medications to inmates. Downs refuted this claim and said the Allegheny Health Network provides medical services at the jail and that “adequate medications are being provided.” In response to conflicting accounts of procedures and events between ACJ and their inmates, such as these medicinal dosage questions, Ross said her organization wants third party reviewers put in place to “say in a neutral way what is actually happening.” Downs said ACJ was open to communicating further with organizations, but the management would need particular examples of its errors to enact change. “If there are specifics — specific inmates, specific incidences, or any other detailed information that this organization would care to provide — we’d be happy to look into it further, but without any specifics, it makes it very difficult to respond to it,” she said. Amanda Reed and Stephen Caruso contributed reporting.
Immigration, pg. 2 neighborhoods. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police adopted an “Unbiased Policing” policy in 2014 that has the bureau work with all federal agencies to report and arrest undocumented immigrants only after they’ve been detained for an unrelated crime. At Pitt, students have been petitioning for the university to formally become a sanctuary campus. Although the administration has listened to their plight and responded with statements that the University will protect its students, they have been hesitant to make the sanctuary status official. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher explained his trepidation on the issue during the last University Senate Council meeting Feb. 22. “Making a preemptive statement about our intent on how we would react to a hypothetical change in immigration policy will have some value to some people because it can be viewed as reassuring,” Gallagher said at the meeting. “But it also will have consequences. In some
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respects, it could narrow our options going forward.” Gallagher was concerned about the possible repercussions of declaring Pitt a sanctuary campus. Several legislators have called for a halt in federal funds to all public colleges that make such claims. Although both Peduto and Gallagher are hesitant to say how the University will respond to a change in immigration policy, Peduto said he plans to continue welcoming the city’s occupants as neighbors. “Pittsburgh will continue to embrace long-time residents and newcomers alike,” Peduto said.
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Leslie Jones, pg. 1
Leslie Jones bantered with members of the audience Tuesday night. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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and dared anyone in the audience to admit that they were supporters, mentioning a previous event where a table of nine people from Alabama said, “None of us voted for him.” Picking up where Laster left off, Jones shared her take on Trump as well. The “Saturday Night Live” cast member and writer and star of the rebooted “Ghostbusters” said her SNL colleagues think her impersonation of the President sounds Jamaican. But the SNL references stopped there as Jones prepared the crowd for a night of vulgar jokes and interactive bits. “This ain’t gonna be like SNL,” Jones said. “There’s gonna be a whole lot of ‘motherf****ers,’ and ‘d***s.’ I’m a horrible person.” With a hefty dose of swearing, Jones joked about college life, texting habits and what she considered differences between men and women. “Yes, we are crazy, ladies. F***ing embrace that sh**. And men, stop
being part of the f***ing problem,” Jones said. Though Women’s Empowerment week was not mentioned in her introduction, her outspoken presence was emboldening enough for senior Anna Josephson, a sociology and communications major. “I admire the way she is very tenacious in her public personality,” Josephson said. “She’s just a badass person.” Jones’ tutorial on taking nude photos wasn’t the only advice she gave to the audience. For girls, she demonstrated how to seductively dance at the club. For the guys in the audience — how to wash their genitals. When Jones stepped offstage into the audience, playing with audience members’ hair and teasing their fashion choices, first year Mark Novales, a finance and global management major, did not expect her to notice him in the crowd — or say that he looked like Bruno Mars. “I didn’t think she’d call me out but it was all good,” Novales said. “I’m a big Bruno Mars fan so for all
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the people for her to pick from that was perfect.” Jones also interacted with Kendra Browning, a graduate student studying social work, and a fan of the comedian. She approached Browning’s group of friends and made fun of them for claiming to be “oldies” at 23. “I come from a smaller undergraduate school so they never had anyone as big as her come in,” Browning said of West Chester University. “I rearranged my whole schedule to come here tonight.” Jones surprised other audience members by climbing on top of them, asking personal questions about their dating lives and rolling around onstage in a student’s coat. At the end of the night, while standing among the attendees, Jones doled out some advice for women in the crowd. Mostly, she just encouraged them to take advantage of their youth. “Embrace your fucking crazy,” Jones said. “Own that s***. You own that g*d-damn crazy.”
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Opinions
column
from the editorial board
Hold Trump accountable to public input on student loans In another startling blow to education under President Donald Trump, the administration rescinded a previous Obama-era regulation last week that prohibited student debt collection agencies from charging more than 16 percent interest on defaulted loans. The administration’s new stance came in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter — a short memo circulated to administration and departments explaining changes in procedures or operations — and came only days after a Consumer Federation of America report showed an increase in the number of students defaulting on their loans. In the letter, the administration said Obama’s decision was not based on enough input from the public. Obama implemented the regulation in 2015 after a circuit court of appeals asked for guidance in a case that pitted United Student Aid Funds, a loan guarantor under the Family Federal Education Loan Program, against Bryana Bible, a borrower who sued the company for charger her more than $4,500 in collection fees after she defaulted on her loan in 2012. But we’re skeptical that more public input is the real motivation behind rolling the old rule back. By repealing the regulations before first trying to gain public comment, the current administration is forcing students who currently have outstanding debt to pay higher interest rates until a new decision is made. If Trump’s administration is serious about its commitment to collecting advice from the public, it should elicit responses now and hold off on rescinding the cap on interest rates until we know what the people really think. The number of people affected by the repeal isn’t marginal. A whopping 7 million people with $162 billion in outstanding loans from the FFEL Program will have to start paying higher interest rates as soon as collection agencies raise the rates, which they’re now free to do because of the letter’s repeal. In a time
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when students and graduates are increasingly defaulting on their loans, the government is asking them to pay back even more. But in some ways, the fact that the administration cited a lack of public input rather than an actual desire to raise interest rates is encouraging. The Republican party is not often kind to student loans and their interest rates, so if its stance is legitimate, it does offer more hope than other explanations it may have provided. It could have justified the choice with a desire to increase interest rates as a way to scare students out of taking more loans in order to avoid the higher penalties if they default. Trump didn’t take a frightening stance on student loan and debt when he definitely could have, but we have to hold him accountable for getting that public input, too. President Trump and the Department of Education should garner public comment on the matter — though hopefully it isn’t through another leading GOP survey — but our willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to education is practically nonexistent at this point. If they plan to pack the room with lobbyists and those who have financial motives to charge higher interest rates, then the effort is for naught, and it will prove the public comment statement merely a tactic disguising a tough stance with a soft demeanor. A jury duty like process where citizens are polled randomly is the most efficient way to glean public input on an issue, as opposed to an open comment areas where corporate interests would be free to dominate the discussion. The move is yours now, Washington. If government officials are really concerned about the public’s opinions on student loan rates, consider our students’ financial futures before you make another rash decision to spite relics of the Obama administration.
Promote inclusivity for safer campuses
Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
Amber Montgomery Opinions Editor
Sexual assault prevention and inclusion are undoubtedly two of the most important issues on college campuses, but it’s time to revamp the way we address them. While administration and dedicated students often push for policy and awareness on both of those topics, they usually tackle each problem separately. A new study from Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health proves that the two issues intersect, highlighting the need for us to develop more programming and initiatives that focus on addressing the two in tandem. The Journal of Interpersonal Violence published the study last week — the result of surveying more than 70,000 undergraduate students at 120 post-secondary institutions in the U.S. between 2011 and 2013. According to the results, students who perceive their campuses as more inclusive and welcoming have lower chances of
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being victims of sexual assault. The study is the largest to examine sexual assault on college campuses, said Robert Coulter, lead author and doctoral candidate in Pitt’s Public Health Department. But what’s particularly special about the analysis is that it “provided insights into how sexual assault varies among populations with multiple and intersecting marginalized identities — such as being both transgender and black,” he said in a release. A complementary Pitt study published in February 2017 in the journal Prevention Science also found that students in minority groups are at a much higher risk of sexual assault than those of majority groups. According to the findings, non-transgender women are 150 percent more likely to be victims of sexual assault than non-transgender men, but transgender people are 300 percent more likely to be sexually assaulted than non-transgender See Montgomery on page 7
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Montgomery, pg. 6
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people. Additionally, among non-transgender people, heteronormative men and women were less likely to be victims than non-heteronormative people, and black men and women were at greater odds to be sexually assaulted than their white counterparts. This research is a call on us, more so than ever, to promote diversity and inclusion on college campuses in ways that intersect with the sexual assault prevention services we already offer. Few of the interventions aimed at preventing sexual assault and raising awareness in the past fews years have produced actual results. And even fewer intervention programs are targeted at racial, ethnic or sexual- and gender-identity minorities, Coulter said in the release. And the results of the most recent study showed students who see their campus as more inclusive of sexual- and gender-minorities are 27 percent less likely to be victims of sexual assault than those who thought their campuses were less inclusive. Chancellor Gallagher stated his commitment to the issue of sexual violence on campus in a letter to the University community in 2015,
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and Natalie Dall, Student Government Board president, made sexual assault prevention and services a critical point in her campaign and term. And since this is the official Year of Diversity and Inclusion, the issue of promoting a more inclusive campus should be one of the most important on campus. Pitt’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion offers trainings and education programs to help foster diversity and promote inclusion on campus and provides diversity resources specifically to minority groups on campus. But new data should push us to build on our initiatives and to normalize these practices so that targeting the intersection of related issues becomes standard. What I’m talking about is intersectionality. We’ve seen the conversation shift around feminism as activists have called for the inclusion of issues that affect women of color, women with disabilities, trans women and low-income women in the feminist platform. Now we need to see the inclusion of people from a variety of backgrounds in sexual assault prevention actions. One in four transgender students have experienced sexual assault in college, according to a 2015 study by the Association of American Universities. And the White House Council on Women and Girls 2014 report found that 22 per-
cent of black women and 34 percent of women who identified as multiracial have been raped in their lifetimes. Instead of talking about favorite colors or best summer memories, Pitt Start icebreaker activities could focus on pronouns. And in addition to informational sessions about financial aid or tutoring services, we can add education about the connections between sexual assault and hate crimes. Much of the programming on sexual assault prevention — like that of the “It’s on Us” campaign — is surface level. We have introduced bystander intervention training to the mainstream and called attention to outfit-shaming and catcalling. Now, we should move our educational initiatives on college campuses to the complexities and subtleties of rape culture. Many first-year students come into college after a less than satisfactory sex education from their high schools. A class that extends beyond what was — or probably wasn’t — taught in high schools can help introduce and solidify new themes about what we expect in terms of inclusion and diversity at Pitt. In addition to talking about contraceptives, partners and consent to foster better understanding of what sex is and means — ideas that will surely benefit sexual assault prevention as well — such a class should
also focus on varying levels of sexuality and discuss how students can recognize transgender and queer discrimination and be allies and productive bystanders. Even more, the key to these changes isn’t to focus on adjusting individualized behavior. It’s more effective in the long run to focus on ways we can change the makeup of our University on a structural level, to create sustainable change that trickles down to become the new norm of how we understand gender and sexuality. Gender-neutral bathrooms on campus and on-campus housing options that prioritize LGBTQ+ students — both changes Pitt has implemented in the past few years — may seem radical now, but if we normalize them, they will become the expected features at colleges around the country in years to come. Revamping our sexual assault services and our fostering of diversity and inclusion on campus are already long overdue. With solid proof grounded in undeniable numbers, we can no longer plausibly put off the need to focus more heavily on minority students on college campuses in every aspect and specifically in sexual assault awareness. If you didn’t already believe it before, now there are numbers to prove it: when our campuses are more inclusive, we’re all safer.
The Pitt News SuDoku 3/22/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
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Sports
Pitt wrestlers reflect on mixed season Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
TeShan Campbell would have been one of the most valuable Pitt wrestlers next year, but he announced his intention to transfer Monday. Dagmar Seppala STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Pitt wrapped up its season at the NCAA Division I Championships last weekend without an All-American wrestler for the second year in a row. After a season marred by senior 149-pounder Mikey Racciato’s curious absences and dismissal, a midseason coaching change and now sophomore TeShan Campbell’s impending transfer, it’s safe to say the Panthers have had better years off the mat as well. Still, there were definite signs of progress from last year — namely the team’s three individual ACC championships after crowning zero in 2016. Those three ACC champions — junior Dom Forys, redshirt freshman Taleb Rahmani and Campbell — traveled to St. Louis for the NCAA Championships along with redshirt junior Ryan Solomon, who quali-
fied as a heavyweight for the third time with a third-place finish at the ACC Championships. Solomon had the team’s best performance at the NCAA Championships, winning three matches and falling one win short of becoming an All-American. Both of his defeats came in close battles with top-five opponents: No. 2 seed Connor Medbery of Wisconsin and No. 5 seed Nick Nevills of Penn State. “I think I wrestled well — we all wrestled pretty well,” Solomon said. “Obviously it’s not what we wanted for any of us. I wanted to be an All-American and came up just shy of it. But looking at the positives, I know what I need to do to get to that top eight and hopefully the top of that podium.” Solomon’s downfall — and what he’ll need to improve next year — was his inability to get up from the bottom position in both of See Wrestling on page 9
Panthers fail to complete comeback, fall to Kent State, 7-6 Bayard Miller
Assistant Sports Editor Despite beginning the game with an early lead and a late offensive surge, the Pitt baseball team couldn’t come back against the hosting Kent State Golden Flashes Tuesday afternoon. Facing a three-run deficit in the ninth inning, the Panthers (8-10, 1-5 ACC) were able to plate two to make the score 7-6 against Kent State (12-6). But the game ended there with Pitt unable to complete the comeback. The game started well for Pitt as the team jumped out to a one run lead. Redshirt senior Jacob Wright drew a walk to lead off the game, and redshirt junior Caleb Parry was hit by a pitch. Redshirt junior Frank Maldonado made
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his way to the plate with runners on first and second with one out. Maldonado reached base on a throwing error by the Kent State second baseman, scoring Wright from second. First-year Dan Hammer took the mound for the Panthers and pitched effectively early. Through the first four frames, Hammer allowed just two hits. But the Golden Flashes turned the offense on in the fifth, scoring two runs off of three hits to take the lead. The Panthers immediately responded in the top of the sixth. With the bases loaded and one out, first-year Alex Amos hit a fly ball to center field, deep enough to score junior Nick Banman from third on the sacrifice. One batter later, sophomore Yaya Chentouf singled to left, bringing in senior PJ DeMeo and
putting Pitt ahead, 3-2. Despite scoring two, the Panthers ended the inning with a bases loaded groundout to short from junior Kaylor Kulina, stranding three baserunners. This missed opportunity would prove costly for the Panthers later in the inning. Hammer was unable to record an out in the bottom of the sixth for the Panthers. He gave up two singles before an error by second baseman Amos allowed the Golden Flashes to tie up the game at three runs apiece. First-year Chris Gomez replaced Hammer on the mound and minimized the damage, striking out a batter before inducing an inning-ending double play. In the seventh inning, the Panthers retook the lead off a sacrifice fly to
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center from DeMeo, plating Parry. But again, Pitt was unable to capitalize in a key scoring opportunity with Chentouf striking out swinging with the bases loaded to end the inning. In the bottom half of the same inning, Kent State seized the lead — and didn’t let it go for the rest of the game. With two outs and two runners on base, Kent State’s Dylan Rosa hit a three-run home run to left field. Gomez gave up three more singles in the inning, allowing the Golden Flashes to tack on an insurance run and giving them a 7-3 advantage. After a quiet eighth inning, Pitt mounted a last-ditch comeback attempt in the top of the ninth. After Maldonado See Baseball on page 9
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Wrestling, pg. 8
Senior shortstop PJ DeMeo puts the ball in play this weekend against Notre Dame. Anna Bongardino STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Baseball, pg. 8 struck out to start the inning, Banman walked and DeMeo was hit by a pitch to put men on first and second. Sophomore Alex Griffith stroked a single into right, scoring Banman and advancing DeMeo to third. Amos came to the plate next and scored DeMeo on a grounder to short, bringing the Panthers within one run on his fielder’s choice.
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Chentouf singled next, but the rally stalled when Wright — who led off the game — fouled out to finish it. Despite their best efforts, the Panthers were unable to climb back from their deficit and dropped the game by a score of 7-6. Pitt will resume action this weekend when it hosts the Virginia Tech Hokies at Cost Field for a three game series. First pitch is at 3 p.m. on Friday.
his losses. Against Medbery, he trailed 1-0 entering the third period and needed an escape to tie the score, but Medbery held him down for the remainder of the match in a 5-0 decision. The situation repeated against Nevills as Solomon failed to escape down 1-0 in the final period of a 2-0 defeat. Forys, meanwhile, entered the tournament as Pitt’s highest ranked wrestler with a 19-1 record. He, too, came one win away from All-American status as a sophomore in 2016, but this year, he took a step back with a 2-2 record at the NCAA Championships. “There were a lot of emotions going through my head after I came up short. I kind of choked a little bit,” Forys said. “Watching my match, I can see I was trying to hold onto positions. I didn’t try to score points. I just kind of clammed up.” Going into the tournament as the No. 6 seed, Forys admitted the pressure of being projected as an All-American may have affected him. “There’s a lot of outside factors that happened at the tournament that I didn’t really deal with the right way and let the atmosphere and environment and pressure of the tournament get to me, being seeded top-eight,” Forys said. “Overall, it was just kind of a big learning experience to put into perspective.” After starting the season as a backup with a 2-4 career record, Rahmani emerged as perhaps the Panthers’ most exciting wrestler while leading the team in pins and wins. As a defending ACC champion, though, he likely won’t catch his opponents by surprise next year the way he did against so many unsuspecting foes this season. “I won’t be as much of an underdog
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next season as I was this year. People will be scouting me,” Rahmani said. Rahmani entered the tournament unseeded and drew a returning All-American, No. 7 seed Dylan Palacio of Cornell in his first-round match. Rahmani lost a 9-1 major decision but did put Palacio on his back as time expired. He said the nerves of competing in his first match at the national championships got to him, but they wore off after facing Palacio. “I should have started going after him earlier instead of letting the name Palacio get to me,” Rahmani said. “He was a big name, returning All-American ... [I was] a little bit nervous going against a big name like that.” Rahmani rebounded from the defeat to pick up an 18-7 major decision win in his second-round match for his first win at nationals. “I didn’t want to go 0-2,” Rahmani said. “It made me feel like I actually belong here if I’m not getting destroyed by the top guys.” Looking forward to next year, the unorthodox 157-pounder doesn’t expect his opponents to stop his signature move: Rahmani allows his opponent to wrap him in a bear hug, then he reaches behind his own back, locks up both of his opponent’s arms and flips them onto their back. “It will definitely be harder because they know it’s coming, but I think I’ll still be able to get it. Just [have to] set it up differently now,” Rahmani said. After a few days of rest, all three returning qualifiers plan to switch to the freestyle circuit as they begin offseason training to prepare for another run at a national championship next season without Campbell. “I definitely think we’ll be back in that top 25 next year at least,” Solomon said. “I definitely think that we can be in that mix for an ACC title as a team.”
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